On floating, I understand, I have some floating in me. I floated as my marriage ended, waiting to see what the hell I would do. I am sort of floating now, as our business is down, though up just today. I live at a financial edge, which I am used to, to some degree. On the other hand, I don't need much, and a turn in local economy can swing me back up to lower middle class. (Kidding, I cross all classes, sort of.)
Still, little k, I frown from experience re time going by and your need to store acorns.
A retirement fund for myself is a thing that I am most interested in making. I had $2000.00 that I invested, instead of putting in an IRA, just before the market crashed.
It would n't have been much, but it would have been something.
littlek, I had no direction nor goals until I was almost 26 years old. I was never good in school, and almost flunked my senior year of high school. It's a wonder I made it through grade school at all, because my father passed away when I was two years old, and our mother worked in a restaurant as a waitress before the war to support her two children. My mother got involved with a married man, who later became my stepfather. He was mean-hearted, and treated my older brother and I miserably. My head was messed up for the first 17 years of my life, until I left home to go to finish high school in another city. After high school graduation, I took a bus to Chicago from California, and worked at a wholesale company as a biller. Made poverty wages for about two years, then enlisted into the US Air Force. To make a long story short, I eventually earned my college degree (by some miracle) in accounting in my early thirties, and the rest, as they say, is history. I married a wonderful, intelligent (graduated from high school, nursing school and college with honors), woman, who's now been my partner for 40 years come June, and we have two sensitive, intelligent, good, sons. We are not wealthy, but very comfortable. I've had a very rewarding and satisfying career. My wife and I have had our battles, but we've always managed to regain our peace and friendship. Looking back, there were many struggles, simply because I had to work while attending college. Most times I worked full time and attended school full time. The only time I got respite from work was during my senior year when my wife supported me. I got involved with student politics, business fraternity, and my grades improved. Before I graduated, I was offered four jobs; three with accounting firms, and one with Florsheim Shoe Company. I took the Florsheim Shoe Company job as a field auditor, and traveled the seven western states for three and a half years when they offered me the job of Audit Manager. From then on until my retirement, I worked in management positions. So, littlek, my only advise to you is to establish some goals for yourself, and "go for it." Don't sell yourself short. Your future can also hold many surprises and life rewards. If I can do it, so can you. BTW, my older brother eventually became an administrative judge in California until his retirement.
